TRENT LOTT: Ordinary Americans know that all ethnic, racial and religious
groups tell jokes on each other. The best black jokes come out of the black
community, the best Jewish jokes come out of the Jewish community, and Polish
jokes and Italian jokes. Trent and Strom are perfect examples of men in public
life who have traveled from Midnight to Noon on the issues of race relations
over the last half century -- and can still joke about where they have been.
Northerners who have not had to travel that distance should not now be
punishing Trent and Strom for having made the journey in a way that has
brought the great majority of their constituents with them.

The two most Southern states have always been South Carolina and Mississippi.
The people in those states are better at appreciating inside jokes than
others. The white liberals have been playing their own race card and President
Bush and even Jack Kemp have fallen for it. Has Al Gore of Tennessee gotten
this into any kind of philosophical perspective? I'm wondering what he has to
say. I'd hope he would get it right. How easy for Kerry of Massachusetts to
judge harshly and demand the public sacrifice of Lott. When this came up some
years ago, I pointed out that Trent Lott had the record of Republicans winning
black votes in his state, getting more than half of them in one re-election to
the Senate. I remember because Tom Kean wrote and told me that he had the
record, 65% or so, in his re-election as governor in 1985.